Universal Call Control Systems and Methods

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for providing a user with control over telecommunications services provided by a service provider. Using almost any type of communications device, a user may gain access to, view, and make changes or modifications to profile information related to the services. The changes may be made quickly and efficiently, but accuracy and thoroughness in the implementation of the changes are not sacrificed. Further, the changes to the communications services are implemented almost immediately and without involvement by the service provider. Particularly, profile information about the telecommunications service is stored on a server in a data network. A change action relating to the profile information may be received at the server from a data device (such as a wireless unit) operating on the network. The change action is implemented on the profile information to result in changed profile information, which may be provided from the server via the data network to the telecommunications system.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This divisional application claims priority to and the benefit of theprior filed co-pending and commonly owned provisional applicationentitled “Universal Call Control” filed in the United States Patent andTrademark Office on Mar. 19, 2001, assigned Ser. No. 60/277,517, andincorporated herein by reference.

This divisional application claims priority to and the benefit of theprior filed co-pending and commonly owned U.S. patent applicationentitled “Universal Call Control” filed in the United States Patent andTrademark Office on Dec. 7, 2001, assigned Ser. No. 10/012,746, andincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The inventions generally relate to a user's control overtelecommunications services provided by a service provider. Morespecifically, the inventions relate to systems and methods that allow auser to gain access to, view, and make changes or modifications toprofile information related to the telecommunications services.

BACKGROUND

A wide variety of communications services are available including, forexample, call waiting, call forwarding, call blocking, do not disturbservices, customized messaging services, communications circles, etc.Generally, the services are implemented for a particular customer basedon profile information relating to the customer's preferences. Forexample, a customer may have call forwarding service implemented so allcalls to his or her home telephone number during business hours areforwarded to a network voice mail service. As another example, acustomer may have call blocking service implemented so calls receivedfrom a specific number during evening hours are blocked.

A customer's preferences with respect to communications service maychange from time to time. Referring to the examples above, the customermay decide to have calls that were previously forwarded to the networkvoice mail service forwarded instead to an office telephone. Withrespect to the call blocking service, the customer may decide to extendthe call blocking service to block calls from another specific number.To accommodate the change in preferences, the customer's profileinformation relating to the communications service may need to bechanged.

Generally, the service provider providing the service makes the changein the customer's profile information relating to the service. Theservice provider typically makes the change because the service providerdelivers the service, and thus, controls the delivery of the service.

To make a change in a communications service, a customer notifies theservice provider. The customer may notify the service provider in anumber of different ways, which include calling a customer servicenumber, or using the Internet to reach the service provider's web siteand communicating the desired changes. Some service providers allow acustomer to call a feature access code (FAC) and provide changeinstructions.

The necessity of having the customer contact the service provider andprovide the change instructions significantly slows the desired changein the communications services. The additional necessity of having theservice provider implement the change instructions further slows thedesired change. Some customers may plan ahead or be patient so a delayof a desired change to communications services may not be important.Most customers, however, desire their changes to communications servicesto take effect as close to immediately as possible.

Therefore, there is a need for faster ways of implementing a customer'sdesired changes to his or her communications services. There is also aneed for more convenient ways of implementing a customer's desiredchanges. In addition, there is a need for faster and more convenientways of implementing a customer's desired changes to his or hercommunications services without sacrificing qualities such as accuracyand thoroughness in the implementation of the changes.

SUMMARY

The inventions generally relate to a user's control overtelecommunications services provided to the user by a service provider.By these inventions, a user is allowed to gain access to, view, and makechanges or modifications to profile information related to thetelecommunications services provided to the user. Advantageously, theinventions allow a user to use almost any type of communications deviceto make changes in communications services provided to him or her. Thechanges may be made by the user quickly and efficiently, but qualitiessuch as accuracy and thoroughness in the implementation of the changesare not sacrificed. Further, the changes to the communications servicesare implemented without involvement by the service provider in thechange process.

More particularly, the inventions allow a user to access profileinformation related to communications services, view the profileinformation, and make changes or modifications to the profileinformation so as to add, delete, turn-on, turn-off, or otherwise modifythe communications services. Any changes or modifications made by theuser are effective almost immediately, and without involvement of theservice provider in the change process.

The inventions include an exemplary method for direct access to change atelecommunications service in a telecommunications system. Per thismethod, profile information about the telecommunications service isstored on a server in a data network. A change action relating to theprofile information may be received at the server. The change action maybe received from a data device (such as a wireless unit) operating onthe data network. The change action is implemented on the profileinformation to result in changed profile information being stored on theserver. The changed profile information is provided from the server viathe data network to the telecommunications system for use in providingthe telecommunications service. In an embodiment, the changed profileinformation is provided to the telecommunications service in response toa request from the telecommunications system received at the server.

The inventions also include an exemplary system for directly changingthe implementation of a telecommunications service without interventionby the service provider. The telecommunications service may be providedto a customer, and the customer may make changes directly by using awireless unit. For example, the customer may use a personal digitalassistant (PDA), an interactive pager (i-pager or IP), an interactivetelevision (TV), or a wireless application protocol (WAP) phone. Thewireless unit may be used to send an instruction relating to a change inthe implementation of the telecommunications service to a serviceplatform in a data network.

The service platform in the data network communicates with thetelecommunications system. The service platform stores profileinformation relating to the implementation of the telecommunicationsservice provided by the service provider. In an embodiment, the serviceplatform stores the profile information as-a-whole. An embodiment alsoprovides for the unique storage of the profile information by theservice platform. In other words, in this exemplary embodiment, thetelecommunications system does not store the profile information, andmust request the service platform for the profile information. Forexample, the request may be made when the telecommunications system isproviding a telecommunications service to the customer. As noted, acustomer may use a wireless unit to send an instruction to change theprofile information relating to the telecommunications services to beprovided to the customer. The service platform may receive theinstruction from the wireless unit, change the profile information basedon the instruction, and send the profile information to thetelecommunications system. The profile information is received by thetelecommunications system and the profile information is used to changethe implementation of the telecommunications service.

In addition, the inventions include a method for use of a customer'stelecommunications profile with another service so as to change thetelecommunications service to the customer in light of the otherservice. This method stores the customer's profile relating totelecommunications services, and also stores an entry of informationrelated to the customer with respect to the other service provided tothe customer. The entry of information may be reviewed for relevance tothe telecommunications services of the customer. Relevance may beestablished if the entry of information allows for changes in theprovision of the telecommunications services to the customer. Forexample, the information may include a reference to a future activity ofthe customer. The future activity of the customer may necessitate achange in the telecommunications services provided to the user such as achange in a call forwarding number, etc. If the entry of information isrelevant to the telecommunications services of the customer, then thecustomer's profile relating to the telecommunications services ischanged to reflect the entry of information.

Further, the inventions may include a method for updating a customer'sprofile with respect to a telecommunications service provided to thecustomer by a telecommunications system. The method may store thecustomer's profile on a server in a data network. The server also maystore an application for providing a service to the customer other thanthe telecommunications service. Application information may be receivedat the server in the data network. The application information may beused with the application in providing the service other than thetelecommunications service to the customer. The server may determine theapplication information relates to the customer's profile with respectto the telecommunications service provided to the customer. If thatdetermination is made, then the customer's profile may be updated withthe application information. In an embodiment, the customer's profileupdated with the application information may be provided from the servervia the data network to the telecommunications system for use by thetelecommunications system in providing the telecommunications service tothe customer.

For example, the application providing the service other than thetelecommunications service to the customer may be an itineraryapplication. The application information may include itineraryinformation. In this example, the customer's profile may be updated withthe itinerary information. The updating of the customer's profile withthe itinerary information may result in the telecommunications servicesbeing provided pursuant to the customer's profile as updated by theitinerary information.

The inventions, in addition, may include, a method to manage a user'stelecommunications services in light of a calendar of the user. Theprofile information about the user's telecommunications services may bestored on a server in a data network. A calendar including entries ofactivities of the user also may be stored on the server. An entry in thecalendar may be received with the entry indicating a future activity ofthe user. In response to receipt of the entry in the calendar of thefuture activity, the profile information about the user'stelecommunications services may be changed to reflect or correspond tothe future activity.

For example, the future activity may include an activity associated witha telephone number other than the directory number of the user. In thisexample, the profile information may be changed to include the telephonenumber associated with the activity so the telecommunications servicesprovided during the activity to the user correspond to the telephonenumber associated with the activity.

To illustrate, the profile information may be changed to forwardcommunications for the user received during the future activity to anumber associated with the future activity. As an example, the profileinformation may be changed to block communications received during thefuture activity. The profile information also may be changed to includeactivation of a do not disturb feature during the future activity withrespect to the directory number of the user. Further, the profileinformation may be changed to include a message to be provided to callsto the directory number of the user if the calls are received during thefuture activity. In an embodiment, in response to a request from theprovider, the profile information (as changed to reflect the futureactivity) is provided to the provider of the user's telecommunicationsservices.

The inventions also include a method for facilitating the narrowing ofthe number of possible locations of a person when the person is beingsought. The facilitation includes storing profile information abouttelecommunications services provided to the person. The profileinformation may be stored on a server in a data network, and the profileinformation may include data about real-time use of a wirelesscommunications unit by the person.

Access to the profile information may be allowed (or allowed only to anauthorized searcher as included in the profile information) to determinewhether the data about the real-time use of the wireless communicationsunit indicates the wireless communications unit is activated. If thedata indicates the wireless communications unit is activated, acommunication may be held with the wireless communications unit todetermine the person's location.

In sum, the inventions described herein store profile information abouta customer's communications services in such a manner that the customermay use almost any type of communications device to access the profileinformation, and to make changes or modifications as desired.Advantageously, the customer may use the most convenient communicationsdevice to him or her to effect changes in his or her communicationsservices at almost any time and from almost any place so as to make thecommunications services best serve the needs of the customer as he orshe determines.

Other systems, methods, and/or computer program products according tothe exemplary embodiments will be or become apparent to one with skillin the art upon review of the following drawings and detaileddescription. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods,and/or computer program products be included within and protected bythis description and be within the scope of this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other embodiments, objects, uses, advantages, and novelfeatures are more clearly understood by reference to the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless unit that may be used with theexemplary embodiments of the inventions.

FIG. 2 illustrates the exemplary wireless unit of FIG. 1 with additionaldetails in the implementation of an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates another exemplary wireless unit that may be used withthe exemplary embodiments of the inventions.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary computer display screen that may be usedwith the exemplary embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary operating environment or architecturethat may be used for implementing the exemplary embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates exemplary data that may be included in a customerprofile in exemplary embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary TCP/IP message set that may be used inexemplary embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The exemplary embodiments now will be described more fully hereinafterwith reference to the accompanying drawings. The exemplary embodimentsmay, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not beconstrued as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Theseembodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough andcomplete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those ofordinary skill in the art. Moreover, all statements herein recitingexemplary embodiments, as well as specific examples thereof, areintended to encompass both structural and functional equivalentsthereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include bothcurrently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in thefuture (i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function,regardless of structure).

Thus, for example, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill inthe art that the diagrams, illustrations, graphical user interfaces, andthe like represent conceptual views or processes illustrating systems,methods and computer program products embodying this invention. Thefunctions of the various elements shown in the figures may be providedthrough the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardware capable ofexecuting associated software. Those of ordinary skill in the artfurther understand that the exemplary hardware, software, processes,methods, and/or operating systems described herein are for illustrativepurposes and, thus, are not intended to be limited to any particularnamed manufacturer.

According to some of the exemplary embodiments, the inventions describedherein allow a customer to use almost any type of communications deviceto make changes in communications services provided to him or her.Advantageously, the customer may make the changes himself or herself,and the changes to the communications services are implemented withoutinvolvement by the service provider in the change process.

More particularly, the inventions allow a customer to access profileinformation related to communications services, view the profileinformation, and make changes or modifications to the profileinformation so as to add, delete, turn-on, turn-off, or otherwise modifythe communications services. Any changes or modifications made by thecustomer are effective almost immediately.

Moreover, the customer may gain access to, view, and make changes ormodifications to the profile information using almost any kind ofdevice. Advantageously, a customer may use a wireless device such as apersonal digital assistant (PDA), an interactive pager (IP), aninteractive television (TV), a wireless telephone, or any other devicehaving data transmission features that allow operation through the useof the wireless application protocol (WAP). A telephone or other devicethat may operate with the WAP is typically referred to as a WAP phone.The customer also may gain access to and make changes or modificationsto profile information using a wireline device such as a telephone, apersonal computer (PC), or any other similar device. The term “customer”is used herein to refer to a user (including a person or an entity) whomay make use of the inventions.

For example, assume a customer subscribes to a call forwarding serviceon a business telephone number. Also assume the customer is going hometo work and would like calls to the business telephone number to beforwarded to the home telephone number. Using the systems and methods ofthe inventions, the customer may change the “forwarded-to” number usingalmost any type of communications device, and the change may take effectalmost immediately. Alternatively, the customer may specify the changestake effect at a later time/date.

FIG. 1 provides an example of how a customer may make the above callforwarding change through use of a PDA, such as the illustrated Palm VIIHandheld from Palm, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. Of course, the inventionsdescribed herein may be used with other PDAs including, but not limitedto: the Cassiopeia EM-500 or E-125 from Casio, Dover, N.J.; the SonyClie from Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan; the Da Vinci or the Vista fromRoyal, Bridgewater, N.J.; the ECHO or the PDA-256 Pen Based Organizerfrom Oregon Scientific, Tualatin, Oreg.; the Palm m100, m105, VIIx, Vx,IIIc, or IIIxe from Palm, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif.; the iPAQ Pocket PCH3600 series or the H3100 series, or the Aero 1500 from Compaq ComputerCorporation, Houston, Tex.; the jornada 720 or 680/690, or the hp 600,300, or 200 series from Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, Calif.; theVisor, the Visor Deluxe, Platinum, or Prism from Handspring, Inc.,Mountain View, Calif.; the Nino 500 or 200 from Philips CFT NorthAmerica, Sunnyvale, Calif.; the Revo or Revo Plus from Psion Inc.,Concord, Mass., the Mobile Companion MC 218 from Ericsson, Stockholm,Sweden, or any other suitable device.

Referring to FIG. 1, the PDA 10 includes a graphic user interface (GUI)representing an applications manager. On the monitor 12 of the PDA 10,the GUI displays icons 14 of applications, features, and servicesavailable for use with the PDA 10. This display of icons 14 also may bereferred to herein as the desktop of the PDA 10. Particularly, thedesktop of the PDA 10 includes an icon 16 for BellSouth Corporation(BellSouth), Atlanta, Ga. BellSouth is the communications serviceprovider to this exemplary customer, and, in particular, the serviceprovider of the call forwarding service to the customer's businesstelephone number. When the customer activates the icon 16, the displayon the monitor 12 changes to the BellSouth interface, as shown on PDA18.

The first display on the monitor 12 of the BellSouth interface allowsthe customer access to the Universal Call Control (UCC) system via alog-in prompt. The UCC system is an exemplary system that may be used toimplement the systems and methods of the inventions described herein.The nomenclature of “Universal Call Control” for this exemplary systemis particularly apt because the system allows a customer to control theservices provided to the customer's telecommunications services, andallows the customer to have such control from almost any type ofcommunications device. Another name for such an exemplary system may be“Multi-Mode Access” system because the customer may use one or more ofmultiple devices to readily access profile information so the customer'scommunications services may be changed as desired by the customer.

In logging-in to the UCC system, the customer may be required to provideinformation such as a password or other identifier for authenticationand/or verification as an authorized user of the UCC system. After thecustomer logs-in and is deemed authorized and/or verified, if necessary,the display on the monitor 12 changes, as illustrated on PDA 20, to showa list of the communications services to which the customer may gainaccess to profile information. By gaining access to the profileinformation, the customer may view the information, and may add, delete,turn-on, turn-off, change, or otherwise modify one or more services. Thelist of communications services may include services to which thecustomer subscribes or which otherwise may be available to the customer.The exemplary list of communications services displayed on PDA 20includes a reference to call forwarding service.

FIG. 2 illustrates a PDA 30, like PDA 20 in FIG. 1, with the list of thecommunications services on display on the PDA's monitor 12. The displayon PDA 30 also includes a reference to the customer's business telephonenumber of “4043322180”. To access profile information related to thecustomer's call forwarding service on that telephone number, thecustomer activates or clicks-on the call forwarding reference. When thesubscriber activates the call forwarding reference, additional displaysare presented. With the additional displays, the subscriber may changethe “forward-to” number from the business telephone number to the hometelephone number (or any other telephone number desired by thecustomer).

For example, PDA 32 displays profile information related to thecustomer's call forwarding service. This profile information is obtainedby the PDA 32 (as explained in greater detail below) through theInternet and/or the public switched telephone network (PSTN) from aservice platform (server or other element) and associated with orincluding a database or other storage of customer profiles 34.

Referring again to the display of profile information related to thecustomer's call forwarding service on PDA 32, the customer may activatecall forwarding service by clicking the “ON” reference. Should thecustomer change his or her mind, the customer may deactivate the serviceby clicking the “OFF” reference. On the display of PDA 32, the callforwarding service is indicated as “ON” (rather than “OFF”), and threedirectory numbers are displayed as options for the “forward-to” number.In this example, these three directory numbers include: Home; Mobile;and Uni-Mailbox (Universal Mailbox). Typically, a customer suppliesdirectory numbers in the profile information so these numbers may bedisplayed as part of the profile information as options for the“forward-to” number for call forwarding service.

As illustrated on PDA 32, the Home directory number is highlighted, andsuch highlighting indicates the “forwarded-to” number for the customer'scall forwarding service for telephone number “4043322180” is the hometelephone number “7704432333”. Of course, the customer may choose todesignate a number other than the home telephone number or the numberspresented as options on the display as the “forward-to” number. To doso, the customer simply inputs the telephone number and such input mayresult in a display of the telephone number as the “forward-to” numberon the monitor 12 of the PDA 32. Once the customer has made his or herchoices with respect to call forwarding service, the customer mayimplement the choices by activating the “submit” reference on thedisplay of the PDA 32. The activation of the “submit” reference causesthe PDA 32 again to communicate (as explained in greater detail below)over the Internet and/or the PSTN with service platform (or otherelement) including the customer profiles 34. The communication with theservice platform results in an update of the profile information relatedto the customer such that call forwarding service is turned-on and thehome telephone number is included as the “forward-to” number.

As noted above, once the customer has made the desired change in the“forward-to” number, the change information is conveyed from the PDAthrough the Internet and/or PSTN to the service platform, web server, orother element hosting the profile information, and changes are made inthe profile information. In some embodiments, the change informationalso may be forwarded to elements of the PSTN so information relating tothe customer stored in the PSTN may be updated. When a call is receivedfor the customer's business telephone number, the PSTN may use itsprofile information, or may take action by communicating over theInternet with the web server to obtain the profile information relatedto the customer. The profile information is then used in the PSTN toforward the call from the business telephone number to the customer'shome telephone number as the “forward-to” number.

FIG. 3 provides preliminary examples of how a customer may use a WAPphone to turn-on a call forwarding service. The inventions describedherein may be used with WAP phones or WAP devices such as the following:the Series 5mx16 MB or the Series 7 16 MB from Psion Inc., Concord,Mass.; the Mobile Phone R320 or R380 from Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden;the Nokia Activ Office, ID, Security, or Alert from Nokia MobileInternet Applications, Finland; the TalkAbout T2288, V.2288; or theTimeport P7389, P7389e, or P1088 from Motorola, Shaumburg, Ill.; or theS40 from Siemens, Munchen, Germany.

Referring to FIG. 3, assume a customer desires to have calls to the WAPphone forwarded to his or her home telephone number. The WAP phone 56includes a display of the BellSouth GUI for the UCC system in itsmonitor 57. The WAP phone 58 includes another portion of the GUI for theUCC system on it monitor 57, displaying a list of the communicationsservices with respect to which the customer may have access to profileinformation so as to view, or to add, delete, turn-on, turn-off, change,or otherwise modify a service.

In this example, assume a customer subscribes to call forwardingservice, but the service is inactive. As illustrated on the display ofWAP phone 58, there is a reference to call forwarding service in thelist of services on the display. The call forwarding service includes anotation the call forwarding service is off (Call Fwd (off)). To turn-onthe call forwarding service, the customer activates the Call Fwdreference. The customer has accomplished an initial step in turning-onthe call forwarding service, but additional information relating to the“forward-to” number of the customer is required. In another displayillustrated on WAP phone 60, the customer is presented with a list ofoptions for a “forward-to” or forwarding number including: Home; Mobile;and Unified Mailbox. Some embodiments of the UCC system may allow thecustomer to pre-designate one or more telephone numbers that may beincluded in a list of options for a “forward-to” number whenever thecustomer desires to turn-on call forwarding service. Alternatively, thecustomer may enter a number other than presented in the list of options.As PDA 60 shows, the Home option is activated so calls to the WAP phoneare forwarded to the home telephone number.

FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 illustrate exemplary wireless devices (a PDA and a WAPphone) that may be used by a customer to access the UCC system so thecustomer may view, and add, delete, turn-on, turn-off, change, orotherwise modify communication services provided to the customer. Inaddition, the customer may access the UCC system through wirelinedevices such as a telephone, a computer, or any other suitable device.

FIG. 4 provides a preliminary example of how a customer may use acomputer to view, and add, delete, turn-on, turn-off, change, orotherwise modify three exemplary services: call forwarding; do notdisturb services; and customized messaging services. Initially, thecustomer accesses the appropriate web site for the UCC system. In theexample, BellSouth is the service provider of the UCC system andprovides a web site with an illustrated page 61 that allows a customer(whose telephone number is “770-555-1234” in this example) to access theUCC system by activating the Universal Call Control (UCC) reference 62on the page 61.

As a result of the activation of the UCC reference 62, a window or otherdisplay 63 of information relating to the UCC system for telephonenumber “770-555-1234” is displayed. As with the PDA and WAP phoneexamples discussed above, the UCC display 63 on the computer displaysprofile information relating to the customer, and particularly, relatingto the customer's call forwarding service. In addition, the UCC display63 on the computer displays profile information related to two otherservices subscribed to and/or available to the customer: Do Not Disturb,and Customized Message. Advantageously, the UCC display 63 allows thecustomer to view, and add, delete, turn-on, turn-off, change, orotherwise modify any or all of the three services displayed to thecustomer. The profile information in the UCC display 63 is obtained bythe computer through the Internet and/or PSTN from a web server hostingprofile information, and in particular, customer profiles related to theUCC system. Typically, the protocol used by the computer incommunicating with the web server is the hypertext markup language(HTML).

As noted above, a telephone is another wireline device that may be usedby a customer to access, and add, delete, turn-on, turn-off, change, orotherwise modify communications services. Advantageously, the exemplaryUCC system allows a customer to call the UCC system from any telephone.In response to the call, the UCC system “talks” to the customer andprovides information related to the customer's communication services.For example, the UCC system may read the customer the presentinformation contained in the profile information related to thecustomer's call forwarding service. The UCC system may then offer thecustomer options in adding, deleting, or otherwise changing or modifyingthe profile information. The customer may respond to the options orallyby simply talking into the telephone and/or by inputting data throughuse of the telephone keypads and dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tonesunderstood by the UCC system.

As explained below, the communication between the telephone being usedby the customer and the UCC system is carried on through the Internetand/or PSTN. In particular, a VoiceXML (also referred to as VOXml)gateway may be included in the PSTN and/or the Internet to enable thecommunication. “VoiceXML” is an acronym for voice extensible markuplanguage, and is a web development language based on XML (extensiblemarkup language). The VoiceXML gateway enables access to andmodification of web-based information through a normal voice interface.In addition, the VoiceXML gateway provides for automatic speechrecognition and/or text-to-speech communication so there may beunderstandable communication between the customer on the telephone andthe UCC system.

In sum, the inventions described herein store profile information abouta customer's communications services in such a manner that the customermay use almost any type of communications device to access the profileinformation, and to make changes or modifications as desired.Advantageously, the customer may use the most convenient communicationsdevice to him or her to effect changes in his or her communicationsservices at almost any time and from almost any place so as to make thecommunications services best serve the needs of the customer as he orshe determines.

System Architecture

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary environment or architecture that may beused for implementing the inventions described herein and/or the UCCsystem including the inventions described herein. Assume a customer(also referred to as a user or a subscriber) is provided withcommunications service relating to the telephone number associated withthe customer's telephone 64. Also assume other communications servicesmay be available to the customer for use on his or her telephone 64. Thespecific information related to the provision and/or availability ofcommunications services for the customer is referred to herein as theprofile information related to that customer. Specific details regardingthe contents of the profile information are provided below in thesection entitled “System Set Up”. Suffice it to say here, that access toand the viewing of a customer's profile information reveals generallydetailed information related to the communications services to which thecustomer subscribes, whether the services are ON or OFF; how, when,where, and with respect to whom the services are provided; whether thecustomer is available for communications, and if so, how the customer isavailable; and similar information such as the availability of otherservices to the subscriber, etc.

In other words, access to and the viewing of profile informationprovides the viewer with a profile about the implementation detailsrelated to most, if not all, of the communications services providedand/or available to the customer. Conveniently, the inventions describedherein may store the profile information (as is described in detailbelow in the section entitled “System Set Up”) “as-a-whole” so that anypart or all of the profile information may be readily accessed, viewed,changed, or otherwise modified. In some embodiments, storing the profileinformation “as-a-whole” may mean storing all or most of the customer'sprofile information in a centralized fashion such as in the same placeor element. In other embodiments, storing the profile information“as-a-whole” may mean storing the customer's profile information in sucha way that parts of the profile information are linked to or otherwiseare in correspondence with the other parts of the profile informationsuch that all or part of the customer's profile information may beobtained, viewed, changed, or modified.

Preferably, the customer's profile information when stored “as-a-whole”is not duplicated. In other words, the customer's profile information istypically not stored “as-a-whole” in an element(s) of the PSTN and“as-a-whole” in an element(s) of a globally-accessible computingnetwork, such as the Internet. The storage of the profile information“as-a-whole” in the exemplary embodiments has advantages with respect toother systems that may not store such information “as-a-whole.” Profileinformation stored “as-a-whole” may be accessed readily from the storagelocation(s).

In contrast, some other methods and systems of call control available toservice providers and/or customers may store the information about acustomer's communications services in a “piecemeal” fashion—someinformation may be spread among one or more elements of the PSTNdirectly involved with providing services; some information may belocated on servers in an intranet; still other information may belocated in service platforms or elsewhere in elements of a data networksuch as the Internet, etc. Profile information stored in “piecemeal”fashion is not as readily accessed, viewed, and/or changed/modified asis profile information stored “as-a-whole.”

Often, other methods and systems of call control duplicate thecustomer's profile information whether on a “piecemeal” basis orcompletely duplicate, replicate, etc. the profile information of acustomer. Such duplication, replication, etc. and piecemeal storageleads to problems related to keeping all of the information insynchronization or at least accurate and current.

For example, a customer may be provided with access to his or herprofile information in such other systems, but such access may be accessto only a single element that fails to include all of the profileinformation. To access other information, the customer may have tootherwise communicate or go through multiple steps and processes inaccessing the information. Even if the customer succeeds in modifyinghis or her profile information as desired, such modifications may not bemade in all of the elements necessary to effectively modify thecommunications services provided to the customer.

Advantageously, the inventions described herein allow a customer to usealmost any type of communications device to access all of his or herprofile information, to view the information, and to make changes ormodifications as desired. In particular, the customer may access theprofile information so as to make changes such as to add, delete,turn-on, turn-off, or otherwise modify services that are availableand/or provided. For ease of reference, all of these actions (accessing,viewing, adding, deleting, turning-on, turning-off, changing, otherwisemodifying, and like actions) are referred to herein as “change actions”.

As noted, profile information is stored in such a manner such thatalmost any type of convenient communications device may be used toaccess the profile information and make change actions. For example, acustomer may use a wireless device such as a WAP phone 66, a cell phoneor mobile phone 68, an interactive pager 70, a PDA 72, an interactivetelevision (TV) 74, or any other suitable device. In addition, thechange actions may be implemented by a customer through use of awireline device such as a telephone 64, or a personal computer (PC) 75.

Generally, the communications services that may be affected by changeactions by the customer are services provided through the AdvancedIntelligent Network (AIN) of the public switched telephone network(PSTN) 76. Alternatively, the communications services that may beaffected by the change actions described herein may be provided by oneor more entities and other than through the AIN or PSTN. For example, aservice provider may use one or more communications servers 98 connectedthrough the Internet 78 (or other data network such as a secure intranet84) to provide all or part of the services and/or service logicassociated with the UCC system and/or one or more of the communicationsservices provided to the customer.

Advantageously, the change actions described herein may be used with awide range of communications services given the present invention'sstorage of information related to the customer as profile information inan “as-a-whole” format rather than having the information distributed“piecemeal” and/or duplicated, replicated, etc. across multiple elementsof the PSTN 76, the Internet 78, and/or other networks. As anotherexample, the communications services against which the change actionsmay be implemented may include services provided from a network having apacket-based architecture or infrastructure because the elements of suchnetworks (such as a “soft switch”) may directly access the web server106 (or other platform) storing the profile information through theInternet 78 or other data network.

As noted, the change actions described herein may be used with a widerange of communications services including advanced services such as maybe provided through the AIN/PSTN 76. The present inventions aredescribed herein with reference to a few of the advanced services withwhich the inventions may be used, to-wit: call forwarding service; donot disturb (DND) service; and customized message data service.Nonetheless, advanced services are not limited to these three services,and the advanced services also may include calendaring services,communications circle services, time of day/day of week (TOD/DOW)services, caller or number identification services, call diversionservices, priority caller services, call waiting services, personalnumber services, remote event notification services such as CallerIDAnywhere service, and the like.

Further, the services may include or relate to accessing, viewing,modifying, deleting, adding, transmitting, and otherwise modifyingfeatures and applications on communications devices. For example, acustomer may use the inventions described herein to access and to view,add, delete, change, transmit, copy, or otherwise modify an applicationor service like a remote file management program on his or her PC, a PDAor interactive pager, and such as PowerPoint files or the like type offiles or data that may be used by a customer on his or her wireline andwireless devices.

For additional details on the Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) of thePSTN, the reader is referred to the commonly assigned patent to Weisser,Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,719, which is incorporated herein by reference.

The wireless devices that may be used by the customer to modify theadvanced services typically operate in connection with a globaldata/information network such as the Internet 78. To make themodifications from a wireless device operating on the Internet 78 to theadvanced services provided to the customer's telephone 64 operating aspart of the PSTN 76, there is a connection between the Internet 78 andPSTN 76 that may be implemented through an intelligent network/internetprotocol (IN/IP) gateway 82 and/or a secure intranet 84.

FIG. 5 further illustrates some principal elements that may implementthe connections among the wireless devices, other communication devices,the PSTN 76, and the Internet 78 as they relate to the inventionsdescribed herein. For example, the WAP phone 66 operates using the WAPthrough a WAP gateway 86 using TCP/IP with the Internet 78 and the PSTN76. The wireless unit 68 operates in a wireless communications system,and particularly, communicates with a mobile switching center (MSC) 88that may operate in a wireless intelligent network (IN) 90 and includean intelligent network/internet protocol (IN/IP) gateway 92 to theInternet 78 and the PSTN 76. The PDA 72 may communicate through aservice provider 90 and/or an Internet service provider (ISP) 96 to theInternet 78 and the PSTN 76. The interactive TV 74 may communicatethrough the PSTN 76 or otherwise to the Internet 78 and the PSTN 76.

In addition, some communications servers 98 such as third party serviceproviders may be connected through a Secure Intranet 84 or otherwise tothe Internet 78 and the PSTN 76. As noted above, a third party serviceprovider may be used to implement some or all of the UCC system for theservice provider of the communications services. Alternatively, thecommunications server 98 may be used to implement some or all of thecommunications services provided to customers of the service providerproviding communication service and/or the UCC system.

In addition, FIG. 5 illustrates that profile information about thecustomers of advanced services provided by a service provider may bestored in customer profiles 34 such as may be implemented in a database,table, log, server, service platform, or other suitable storage device.Typically, the profile information about a customer's services may bekept in a customer profile 34. A customer profile 34 may include, but isnot limited to, the following information:

-   -   a list of all communications services available and/or provided        to the customer;    -   for each service available to the customer, a list of the        features of the service that may be affected by change actions        by the customer;    -   for each applicable service, an indication of whether the        service is active (ON) or inactive (OFF);    -   “presence” status such as any information related to how a        subscriber can be reached such as an IP address, instant        messaging address, e-mail address, pager address, other        telephone numbers, passwords, identifiers, and the like;    -   other information related to the customer such as files,        scheduled events, calendars, log of activities, and/or        communications, permissions for shareable information or public        information, designation of private information, etc.

Generally, the customer's profile may be accessed by the serviceprovider for the provision of the advanced services to the customer'sdesignated telephone number(s). In addition, the customer's profile maybe accessed by the customer to implement change actions. Further, asexplained below in connection with Communications Circle (CC) services,some or all of the customer's profile may be accessed by persons orentities of the customer's communications circle. For the customer andfor the persons or entities of the customer's communications circle,access to the customer's profile may be made through use of a wirelessdevice such as a PDA or a WAP phone, or through a wireline device suchas a telephone or a computer.

FIG. 5 illustrates the customer profiles 34 as connected throughapplication servers 106 and a firewall 105 to a Secure Intranet 84 andto the Internet 78, and through the Internet 78 or the Secure Intranet84 to the PSTN 76. The customer profiles 34, however, may be connectedin other ways so as to be accessible as necessary through the PSTN 76and/or the Internet 78. Further, the logic or programming necessary forimplementation of the inventions described herein (such as the exemplaryUCC system implementing some of the inventions) may be contained inapplication server(s) 106 such as may be included on a web server orservice platform. As illustrated, the application servers 106 are shownas connected to customer profiles 34, and such connection as beinglocated on the same server or platform may be preferable for ease ofexecution of the methods and systems described herein. Nevertheless, theapplication servers 106 and the customer profiles 34 need not be locatedon the same element such as a server or platform, but may be located indistinct elements that are functionally connected whether they areelements of the Internet 78, another data network, or the PSTN 76.

An advantage of storing the customer profiles 34 on a web server in theInternet 78 is that such information then is universally accessiblethrough myriad wireline and wireless devices. Whatever device thecustomer uses to access the UCC system, for example, and his or hercustomer profile, it is the same customer profile that is accessed nomatter the device. The customer profile is automatically synchronizedbecause it is updated as necessary by changes from the customer and/orfrom service management, and no further updates to other correspondinginformation are necessary.

Further, the storage of customer profiles 34 on a web server in theInternet 78 may allow third parties to write to the customer profiles orprovide third party applications that may be used with the customerprofiles 34. For example, a third party may provide a calendarapplication used by a customer. The customer updates or modifies thecalendar with an entry relating to an out-of-town visit. The calendarapplication may be configured to communicate with the UCC system, andparticularly, with the customer profiles 34 so the customer's profile isupdated as necessary with respect to the out-of-town visit.

Another example of a third party application that may be used with theinventions described herein is an itinerary application that may bemaintained by a customer on a third party's server. The customer maymake information related to his or her itinerary accessible to otherpeople and through the UCC system or customer profiles 34. Further, theitinerary application may be so sophisticated as to automatically updatethe customer's itinerary in cases such as flight delays, etc. Theitinerary application then may update the customer's profile informationin the UCC system. Colleagues of the customer who have access to his orher itinerary are provided with the most up-to-date version of theitinerary.

Of course, customer profiles 34 could be duplicated in another elementin the Internet 78 and/or the PSTN 76. To do so, the customer profiles34 across the elements would have to be synchronized so as to provideuniformity of services. Such synchronization may require audits of theinformation across the elements, or other verification of propersynchronization.

As noted, FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary environment or architecturethat may be used in implementing the inventions described herein. Forexample, FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary environment relating to the useof WAP phones and PDAs by customers in implementing change actions toservices provided by a service provider and relating to the customer'scommunications services. Assume the wireline device 64 is the customer'stelephone, which is served by an element of the public switchedtelephone network (PSTN) 76 and AIN referred to as a service switchingpoint (SSP) 102. To implement an advanced service for a customer, thecustomer's telephone number may be provisioned with a terminatingattempt trigger (TAT) at the SSP 102 serving the customer's number. Whena call is received for the customer's number, the TAT causes the SSP 102to pause in the processing of the call and to request instructions fromanother PSTN element referred to as a service control point (SCP) 104.The communications between the SSP 102 and the SCP 104 generally aremade pursuant to the transactional capabilities application part (TCAP)and the Signaling System 7 (SS7) protocol.

The SCP 104 may include information relating to the processing of thecall to the customer's telephone number, or the SCP 104 may obtain suchinformation from another source. For example, information relating tothe call may be present in a customer profile stored in the customerprofiles 34. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the customer profiles 34 may bestored on a web server 106 or other platform connected to the Internet78. Thus, the SCP 104 may be configured to include applications(sometimes referred to as service package applications (SPAs)) to beable to communicate to initiate a request for information relating tothe call from the PSTN 76 through the Internet 78 to the web server 106and customer profiles 34. The communication between the SCP 104 and theweb server 106 may be made pursuant to the transmission controlprotocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP). Once the SCP 104 obtains theinformation relating to the processing of the call, the SCP 104 providesinstructions to the SSP 102.

FIG. 5 also illustrates how a customer might use a telephone 64 to makechanges to his or her customer profile. The customer uses the telephone64 to make a call to a specified directory number that is routed throughthe PSTN 76 to the VoiceXML gateway. The number dialed by the customertypically maps to an internet protocol (IP) address for the server ordatabase with the customer profiles 34. A VoiceXML page is returned fromthe database to the gateway. The page includes text which is translatedfrom text-to-speech by the gateway so the customer may hear the text.The customer responds to the speech, and the response is translated bythe VoiceXML gateway and provided to the customer profiles 34.

FIG. 5 also includes additional information on typical protocols usedbetween and/or among the elements of the exemplary environment. Forexample, FIG. 5 illustrates that WAP phone 66 communicates using thewireless access protocol (WAP) with the WAP gateway 86. The WAP gateway86 communicates with the secure intranet 84 using TCP/IP. The secureintranet 84 also uses TCP/IP in communicating with the voice/web gateway82. Further, the secure intranet 84 communicates using TCP/IP throughthe security solution with the Internet 78.

As noted above, the web server 106 hosting the customer profiles 34 maycommunicate using TCP/IP through the Internet 78 to the SCP 104 of thePSTN 76. In addition, the web server 106 may communicate using wirelessmark-up language (WML) through the Internet 78 with the WAP gateway 86.Further, the web server 106 may communicate using voice extensiblemark-up language (VoiceXML) through the Internet 78 to the voice/webgateway 82.

As noted above, profile information relating to a customer is stored ina customer profile typically held on a web server or other platform sothe customer profile may be accessed by a customer over the Internetusing a wireless device such as a WAP phone or a PDA.

System Set Up

FIG. 6 includes bullet points of information related to an exemplary setup of a customer profile in the Universal Call Control (UCC) system. Acustomer profile, of course, may be set up in other ways, and maycontain different information depending on the customer, the serviceprovider, the architecture, the web server, the database, table, log, orregistry holding the customer profile, the services available to thecustomer, the services subscribed to by the customer, and other factors.

In the exemplary set up of FIG. 6, the customer profile is described asresiding in a web server such as may be used with the Internet. Thecustomer profile may be accessed via the Internet such as through use ofa personal computer, through use of a telephone or other wireline deviceusing the VoiceXML (or the like) protocol, or through a wireless devicesuch as a PDA, WAP phone, interactive pager, or the like. Access to thecustomer profile may allow the customer to view the data in the customerprofile and to implement change actions with respect to the data in thecustomer profile.

In the exemplary set up of FIG. 6, all access to a customer profilerequires a password authentication. For example, a customer may use hisor her PDA to access the customer profile on a communications presenceregistry. After initial contact with the registry, the customer may berequested to provide a password, an identifier, or some otherinformation that may be verified or authenticated so as to determinewhether the customer is authorized to access the customer profile.

As noted above, the customer profile may be used by the service providerin providing the customer with communications services. As part of theset up of the UCC system for any particular customer, a terminationattempt trigger (TAT) is set in the service switching point (SSP)serving the customer's telephone number in the PSTN. When a call isreceived for the customer's telephone number at the SSP, the TAT isnoted and the SSP pauses in its processing of the call for instructionsfrom a service control point (SCP). In some cases in the UCC system, theSCP may store or otherwise include the customer's profile so as to beable to instruct the SSP on how to further process the call. Butgenerally, pursuant to the exemplary UCC system, the SCP must obtain thecustomer profile before the SCP can provide the SSP with instructions onhow to further process the call. Thus, the SCP communicates through theInternet to the web server or other platform housing the communicationpresence registry, and obtains the customer profile from that registry.Once the customer profile is obtained, the SCP uses the data from thecustomer profile in instructing the SSP on further processing of thecommunication.

Further, FIG. 6 illustrates exemplary data that may be included in acustomer profile relating to a customer who subscribes to three advancedservices with respect to which the customer may make change actions. Thethree advanced services include: call forwarding service; do not disturbservice; and customer message data service. The customer profileincludes the customer's telephone number (also referred to as thesubscriber's directory number). Typically, the customer's telephonenumber is used as the key in searching the communication presenceregistry for the customer profile relating to the customer.

For the call forwarding service, the customer profile may include anindication of the status of the call forwarding service, i.e., whetherthe service is active (ON) or inactive (OFF). If the customer decides toimplement the call forwarding service, then calls dialed to thecustomer's number having the service are forwarded to another telephonenumber. These “forwarded-to” numbers also may be referred to as “ActiveReach Numbers”. In this example, the customer has included his or herhome telephone number, mobile number, and unified mailbox number aspossible “forwarded-to” number. When the customer is implementing thecall forwarding service using the UCC system, the customer may chooseone of the listed numbers as the “forwarded-to” number. Alternatively,the customer may enter a telephone number to be used as the“forwarded-to” number.

For the do not disturb (DND) service, the customer profile may includean indication of the status of the service, i.e., whether the service isactive (ON) or inactive (OFF). Generally, when the service is active,calls are not terminated to the customer's number. Some types of DNDservice allow a customer to specify one or more telephone numbers thatmay “by-pass” the DND service when the service is active so that callsfrom those specific telephone numbers may be terminated to thecustomer's telephone number. Generally, a caller who is allowed toby-pass the DND service is referred to as a priority caller. A prioritycaller's telephone number is referred to as a priority caller phonenumber. Thus, the customer profile for DND service may include one ormore priority caller phone numbers. If a call is received for thecustomer's telephone number as originating from one of these prioritycaller phone numbers, then the call is put through to the customerrather than being blocked by the DND service.

For the customized message (CM) service, the customer profile mayinclude an indication of the status of the CM service, i.e., whether theservice is active (ON) or inactive (OFF). If the customer decides toimplement the CM service, then the customer may specify that callsreceived from one or more specific telephone numbers are to be providedwith a message.

Generally, a caller who is to be provided with a message per the CMservice is referred to as a CM caller. A telephone number of a CM calleris referred to as a CM caller's telephone number. Thus, the customerprofile for CM service may include one or more CM caller's telephonenumbers. If a call is received for the customer's telephone number asoriginating from one of these CM caller's telephone numbers, then thecall is provided with a message. The customer may specify a message tobe provided to the CM callers. As indicated in FIG. 6, the customer maycompose his or her own message, and provide up to 100 characters ofmessage (or some other predetermined number of characters). Thesecharacters of message are referred to as the CM Text and are included inthe customer profile. In an alternative embodiment, the CM service mayprovide the customer with message options so the customer does not haveto compose his or her own message. For example: the CM service may allowa customer to choose from one of the following standard messages: “Callme later”; “I'm unavailable”; etc.

As noted above, when a customer subscribes to the UCC system, aterminating attempt trigger (TAT) is provisioned with respect to thecustomer's telephone number at the service switching point (SSP) servingthe telephone number. When a call is received for the customer's number,the SSP requests instructions from a service control point (SCP) in thePSTN. Generally, the SCP must obtain the customer profile so as toinstruct the SSP on how to further process the communication. The SCPobtains this information through communication over the Internet withthe web server or other platform housing the communication presenceregistry having the customer profile. The SCP communicates over theInternet with the web server/communication presence registry using oneor more TCP/IP query/response exchanges or message sets.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary TCP/IP message set such as may beexchanged between an SCP and a web server communicating over theInternet with regard to a customer who subscribes to three advancedservices. These three services include: call forward service; do notdisturb (DND) service; and customized message (CM) service. The leftcolumn of information on FIG. 7 begins with an exemplary specificationof the types of information or data that may be included in a TCP/IPquery relating to a customer from the SCP to the web server. Followingthe exemplary TCP/IP query, FIG. 7 also illustrates an exemplaryspecification of the types of information or data that may be includedin a TCP/IP response corresponding to the TCP/IP query described above.The TCP/IP response is from the web server to the SCP

Exemplary Communications Service-Communications Circle Service

An example of a communications service is a communications circle (CC)service. An exemplary CC service allows a subscriber to specifyperson(s) or other entities who are to be included in the subscriber'scommunications circle. A log, table, or other structure may storeinformation about each entity in the communications circle. Theinformation may include a name, password, other identifier, a telephonenumber, a facsimile number, an e-mail address, a mobile phone number,etc. This information may be used to allow the subscriber to quicklycontact the entities in his or her communications circle.

In addition, persons or other entities in the communications circle maybe allowed access to some or all of the profile information in the UCCsystem relating to the subscriber. The access to some or all of theprofile information about a subscriber in the UCC system may provide theperson in the communications circle with real-time information about thesubscriber, and thus, facilitate communications between the person inthe communications circle and the subscriber. For example, a person inthe communications circle may check profile information on thesubscriber to determine whether the subscriber has turned on his or hermobile unit or interactive pager. If so, the person then may attempt toreach the subscriber at his or her mobile unit or interactive pagerrather than first trying the subscriber's home or office telephonenumber. As a result, the person may save time in contacting thesubscriber, and the subscriber at least may appear to be more readilyavailable for communication with the person in the communicationscircle.

Advantageously, the person in the communications circle may access someor all of the profile information in the UCC system relating to thesubscriber through use of a wireless device such as a PDA or WAP phone.For example, a person in the communications circle may use his or herPDA to access some of the subscriber's profile information in the UCCsystem and check whether the subscriber has turned on his or her mobileunit or interactive pager. In sum, the person in the communicationscircle may access some or all of the profile information in the UCCsystem relating to the subscriber to gain information about thesubscriber. Generally, a person in the communications circle does nothave the same privileges as the subscriber in implementing the changeactions relating to communications services of the subscriber. Rather,the person in the communications circle typically has only “read-only”privileges relating to the profile information of the subscriber in theUCC system.

For additional details on CC services, the reader is referred to thecommonly assigned patent application entitled “Shared CommunicationPresence Information”, filed in the United States Patent and TrademarkOffice on Nov. 10, 2000, assigned Ser. No. 09/709,038, and incorporatedherein by reference.

The universal call control methods and/or systems described herein maybe physically embodied on or in a computer-readable medium. Thiscomputer-readable medium may include CD-ROM, DVD, tape, cassette, floppydisk, memory card, and large-capacity disk (such as IOMEGA®, ZIP®,JAZZ®, and other large-capacity memory products (IOMEGA®, ZIP®, andJAZZ® are registered trademarks of Iomega Corporation, 1821 W. IomegaWay, Roy, Utah 84067, 801.332.1000, www.iomega.com). Thiscomputer-readable medium, or media, could be distributed to end-users,licensees, and assignees. These types of computer-readable media, andother types not mentioned here but considered within the scope of thisinvention, allow the computer product of the universal call controlmethods and/or systems to be easily disseminated.

Still in further exemplary embodiments, the universal call controlmethods and/or systems may be physically embodied on or in anyaddressable (e.g., HTTP, I.E.E.E. 802.11, Wireless Application Protocol(WAP)) wireless device capable of engaging in a session initiationprotocol communication or other similar communication. Examples couldinclude a computer, a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), anInternet Protocol phone, and/or a wireless pager.

In conclusion, the inventions described herein including the universalcall control (UCC) systems and methods allow a customer to use almostany type of communications device to change or modify communicationsservices provided to the customer. While several exemplaryimplementations of embodiments of this invention are described herein,various modifications and alternate embodiments will occur to those ofordinary skill in the art. For example, the universal call controlsystems and/or methods may use different communications formats, suchas, for example, Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), URL formats, andExtensible Style Sheet (XSL) formats, Real Simple Syndication (RSS) thatuses XML structures. Accordingly, this invention is intended to includethose other variations, modifications, and alternate embodiments thatadhere to the spirit and scope of this invention.

1. A method of processing communications, comprising: receiving a call from a calling number; querying profile information stored in memory for the calling number; retrieving text from the profile information by a processor communicating with the memory when the calling number is found in the profile information; and providing the text to the calling number.
 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising retrieving an active status from the profile information.
 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising retrieving an inactive status from the profile information.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising associating the text to the calling number.
 5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing an association between the text and the calling number.
 6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing a selection of text to associate with the calling number.
 7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising processing a choice from the selection of text.
 8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing a personal composition as the text.
 9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising associating the personal composition to the calling number.
 10. A system for managing communications of a user, comprising: a processor executing code stored in memory, the code causing the processor to: receive a call from a calling number; query profile information for the calling number; retrieve a text message from the profile information when the calling number is found in the profile information; and provide the text message to the calling number during the call.
 11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the code further causes the processor to modify the profile information.
 12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the code further causes the processor to store itinerary information with the profile information.
 13. The system according to claim 10, wherein the code further causes the processor to store calendar information with the profile information.
 14. The system according to claim 10, wherein the code further causes the processor to associate calendar information to the calling number.
 15. The system according to claim 10, wherein the code further causes the processor to forward the call to another number.
 16. The system according to claim 10, wherein the code further causes the processor to associate the text message to the calling number.
 17. The system according to claim 10, wherein the code further causes the processor to store a selection of messages to associate with the calling number.
 18. The system according to claim 10, wherein the code further causes the processor to store a personal composition as the text message.
 19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the code further causes the processor to associate the personal composition to the calling number.
 20. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions for performing a method of managing communications of a user, the method comprising: receiving a call from a calling number; querying profile information for the calling number; retrieving a text message from the profile information when the calling number is found in the profile information; associating the calling number to calendar information; providing the text message to the calling number during the call; and providing the calendar information to a called party. 